Heathen Storm's Not-so-heavy-cavalry submod V2 (For Patch 3.06 - Updated 10-27-2011!)
Hey mates! So really this submod is to help educate many of the modern people about some of the warfare of this era - this mod already does such a great job, there's not much to change! But one huge misconception is the idea of the "Germanic heavy cavalry". In truth, heavy cavalry of this era were not what they were of vanilla Medieval's time frame. Heavy Cavalry were essentially just massively armoured men put on top of a horse. The cavalrymen of this time period's favorite tactic was hit and run; due to the couched lance which was developed much later in history, these horsemen didn't have the penetrating power to break infantry formations, nor were their war horses trained to do so. So to get the enemy to move around a bit, they instead threw their spears like massive javelins into the formation, and then mop up the survivors with their sword.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION:
The Carolingian cavalry - under Charles Martel - were certainly known to employ the charging tactics of the Byzantines, Avars and Lombards that were the predecessors of the Medieval heavy cavalry. But when engaged in some of their more recent enemies, such as the Saxons, they were faced with a problem. The Saxons (and many other Germanic tribes) employed use of the Shield Wall formation. The troops would form a battle line 2 or 3 men deep, with interlocking shields at chest- and leg-level. This formation was practically impenetrable; in fact, it was so effective that it was used for thousands of years! However, it had one weakness. When the formation was broken, the individual was helpless. So for that, the "heavy" cavalrymen developed a new tactic of breaking the enemy formations; throwing their spears like javelins or stabbing into the ranks as they rode past the shield. After their spears were gone or they felt like they had come close enough to death, they feigned retreat as many armies had done. When the infantry broke formation to chase them, the cavalry turned and cut them down with their swords (as seen in the Battle of Hastings).
Other changes: Magyar cavalry stats have been fixed with Real Recruitment standards. They are still a tough fight, but not as hard as before!
NOW RELEASED!
Installation instructions:
1) Extract "export_descr_unit" to Last_Kingdom/data
2) Extract "battle_models" to Last_Kingdom/data/unit_models
3) Boot up the game and provide feedback for Heathen
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Originally Posted by smoesville
